Contents
Space and place.....................................................................................................................................2
Lecture 1 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................2
Lecture 1 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................4
Lecture 2 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................8
Lecture 2 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place.................................................................10
Spatial justice.......................................................................................................................................13
Lecture 1 – Social justice; the Liberal Distributive Paradigm. John Rawls (1999).............................13
Lecture 2 – Justice, Difference: a critique of the distributional Paradigm – Iris Marion Young (1990)
.........................................................................................................................................................19
Lecture 3 – Towards Spatial Justice – Edward W. Soja (2010).........................................................25
Lecture 4 – Planning for the ‘Just City’ – Susan Fainstein (2009) and Michael Sorkin (2012)..........29
Lecture 5 – Spatial Justice in times of Covid-19...............................................................................34
1
,Space and place
Lecture 1 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place
About how we experience places and meaning we attach to a specific place.
Art in Doetichem, how the public space is experienced there. The different colors visualizes how
everything is experienced there and the current emotions of the city. Via the internet inhabitants
can express their feelings which is shown in different colors. It is nicely to see that these places are
not abstract and neutral spaces, but places are full of emotions and subjective meanings
Edmund Husserls (1859-1938):
How we experience places and how we attach meaning to places is directly related to
phenomenology
Edmund Husserl phenomenology, he noted that we never observe objectively never observe
facts, we only see how things appears to us. Phenomenon means apereas. How it appears to us, is
part of our own perspective. To get to the real attributes, of what we observe, we need to get rid of
our first ideas.
In first instance he wanted to develop a method, to get to the real things, by abstracting from all our
subjectivities. Practically we never can get fully rid of them, it is not realistic. All our observation start
with a phenomenon and not with a supposed new thing. Therefore, it might be more fruitful to not
get rid of our subjectivity understand the subjectivity, to understand the base structure of our
experiences and of our subjectivity, and to take that subjectivity seriously instead of ignoring it.
Example live-aid bob different locations at the same time.
Lets look at two different accounts of the same event.
Account 1:
Description is largely central to what we describe as positivistic approach/description, however, this
description doesn’t capture the spirit of the ordinary event.
Account 2: Bob's own description. Here you notice and feel the importance and emotion of that
moment. You feel the solidarity of hungry people in Ethiopia. Here you feel and experience the full
intensity. Is this were we want to extract from? Or is this where it is about? The contrast between
2
,the two descriptions provides a step towards understanding phenomenology. It wants to understand
the world as lived, experienced, enacted and always in the making.
Other very crucial moments and events which are experienced in a similar way. i.e. fall of the Berlin
wall. Everyone knows these kinds of events from your own personal experience. The moment you
felt in love, the outbreak of a war, 9/11, MH17, lock-down after corona, etc.
Moments you will never forget, which remind you what is important to you and which have an
impact on your memory and remind you what is really important to you.
Other example refugee crisis coming to Europe a single picture tips our attitude. It looks as a
business as usual, but the number of deaths increase rapidly, the more we got confronted with it,
the more the war touch our feeling. A single picture, where our attitude caused us to become active
and not lead it to the standard procedures.
The many new people start fear for some other people. For some people they turn around the
attitude again based on a culture of fear. Also shows how powerful feelings, expressions and
experiences are and what massive effects they have: On our decisions, attitude on how things are.
Maybe much more then were we think of. It is the effective relationships, with our situation, with
the place we live in, which explain the cause of our world. It is phenomenology which tries to grasp
the structure and driving forces behind our feelings and behind our relationship behind the world
and our attachment with place.
Other than these extreme evens, there are also routine situations, which is important for you. But of
which you do not think of on everyday basis. But where you think of when they do not exist
anymore. Think about the relaxation in a steam bad, the relation with your mother, a night kiss.
Phenomenology is about the experience of these moments at these places, not about the factual
aspects.
What we observe is not the object or a fact as it is, but how inasmuch it is given in the intentional
acts. The true essence of objects resides in our deepest intentional relationship with them.
Edmund Hussrl developed phenomenology as an approach to understand subjectivity and
subjective meaning of these events and places. He was not interested in factual knowledge, but
much more in the subjective knowledge. He assumes that we never accounted an event neutrally.
We always have a purpose/ intention which direct our intention to it. We see different things.
Phenomenology is broadly practices in social sciences and also spatial sciences in relation to space
and place, and how these meaning of space and place is subjectively constructed. Not just by means
of individuals subjective intentional acts but also by inter subjective and interaction.
Central in our phenomenological approach in space and place is experience.
Phenomenology:
Phenomena do not independently exist out there (its not based on facts), but are based on
interpretations
3
, Intentions of investigator as well as intentions of investigated subjects, are important if we
want to interpret the world, or if we want to understand the way, people perceive and act in
this world
Through our intention’s phenomena are attributed a meaning (a city is only different from a
village from the perspective of what we itent with this classification or from the perspective of
what we intend to do in a city or in a village)
Just with external overt quantifiable facts, without taking into account the specific subjective
perspective of the subjective we investigate, we can not really explain or understand how and
why people act in the way they do
Research focus shifts from superficial analysis and explanation of spatial regularities to the
understanding of the way people make sense of the world and act accordingly.
Lecture 1 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place
The world of classical phenomenological thinkers, as soon as you want to do something with the
concept of space and place, you cannot get around them there are part of the spatial thinking. If we
talk about phenomenology, we have Martin Heidegger. He asked himself: what is actually means to
exist of a person what it means to be, what it means to be in this world. The term, being in the
world, Dasein. It means being at a place, being in the world. One cannot being separate between
being, world and place. It is necessary for us to be somewhere, to be in the world. To be is to be
related to a place. He uses being in the world as like concept object, consciences and world. The split
between subject and object. As we find it a western tradition should be overcome. In a similar way
also Hussrel and Plentano concept of intentionality express an intention that it is not an condition
but that it is always related to ourselves. It is always consciousness of something. We cannot think of
a place to not include our consciousness awareness of that place. We cannot isolate the place of the
rest of the environment. There is always a mood that assails us with an un-reflected emotion.
A mood come neither form the outside or inside but arises from being in the world. Only through a
mood we are able to encounter things and being in the world. Dasein openness in the world and
interpretation and understanding the world in terms of possibilities. Many possible relations of the
world around us. This relationship gives a place a specific meaning. Being in a specific place gives or
relate to a certain object is always a moment in time. So, time plays an important role in the way we
experience a place and an object here. The essence of our relationship to the world depends on how
we actively and temporarily relate to the world. We choose a specific possibility.
Many different possibilities to relate to the world. Having to do something, producing something,
looking after something, making use of something, giving something up of letting it go, considering,
discussing, they all exemplify different things related to the world. Heidegger describes different
ways of being to a concern, to a specific place a form of caring, it is a specific form of spatial practice.
Place and space are not just out there but are lived spaces. Are spaces which we somehow make our
own, make it to our home.
4
Space and place.....................................................................................................................................2
Lecture 1 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................2
Lecture 1 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................4
Lecture 2 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place...................................................................8
Lecture 2 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place.................................................................10
Spatial justice.......................................................................................................................................13
Lecture 1 – Social justice; the Liberal Distributive Paradigm. John Rawls (1999).............................13
Lecture 2 – Justice, Difference: a critique of the distributional Paradigm – Iris Marion Young (1990)
.........................................................................................................................................................19
Lecture 3 – Towards Spatial Justice – Edward W. Soja (2010).........................................................25
Lecture 4 – Planning for the ‘Just City’ – Susan Fainstein (2009) and Michael Sorkin (2012)..........29
Lecture 5 – Spatial Justice in times of Covid-19...............................................................................34
1
,Space and place
Lecture 1 – part 1 – Phenomenology of space and place
About how we experience places and meaning we attach to a specific place.
Art in Doetichem, how the public space is experienced there. The different colors visualizes how
everything is experienced there and the current emotions of the city. Via the internet inhabitants
can express their feelings which is shown in different colors. It is nicely to see that these places are
not abstract and neutral spaces, but places are full of emotions and subjective meanings
Edmund Husserls (1859-1938):
How we experience places and how we attach meaning to places is directly related to
phenomenology
Edmund Husserl phenomenology, he noted that we never observe objectively never observe
facts, we only see how things appears to us. Phenomenon means apereas. How it appears to us, is
part of our own perspective. To get to the real attributes, of what we observe, we need to get rid of
our first ideas.
In first instance he wanted to develop a method, to get to the real things, by abstracting from all our
subjectivities. Practically we never can get fully rid of them, it is not realistic. All our observation start
with a phenomenon and not with a supposed new thing. Therefore, it might be more fruitful to not
get rid of our subjectivity understand the subjectivity, to understand the base structure of our
experiences and of our subjectivity, and to take that subjectivity seriously instead of ignoring it.
Example live-aid bob different locations at the same time.
Lets look at two different accounts of the same event.
Account 1:
Description is largely central to what we describe as positivistic approach/description, however, this
description doesn’t capture the spirit of the ordinary event.
Account 2: Bob's own description. Here you notice and feel the importance and emotion of that
moment. You feel the solidarity of hungry people in Ethiopia. Here you feel and experience the full
intensity. Is this were we want to extract from? Or is this where it is about? The contrast between
2
,the two descriptions provides a step towards understanding phenomenology. It wants to understand
the world as lived, experienced, enacted and always in the making.
Other very crucial moments and events which are experienced in a similar way. i.e. fall of the Berlin
wall. Everyone knows these kinds of events from your own personal experience. The moment you
felt in love, the outbreak of a war, 9/11, MH17, lock-down after corona, etc.
Moments you will never forget, which remind you what is important to you and which have an
impact on your memory and remind you what is really important to you.
Other example refugee crisis coming to Europe a single picture tips our attitude. It looks as a
business as usual, but the number of deaths increase rapidly, the more we got confronted with it,
the more the war touch our feeling. A single picture, where our attitude caused us to become active
and not lead it to the standard procedures.
The many new people start fear for some other people. For some people they turn around the
attitude again based on a culture of fear. Also shows how powerful feelings, expressions and
experiences are and what massive effects they have: On our decisions, attitude on how things are.
Maybe much more then were we think of. It is the effective relationships, with our situation, with
the place we live in, which explain the cause of our world. It is phenomenology which tries to grasp
the structure and driving forces behind our feelings and behind our relationship behind the world
and our attachment with place.
Other than these extreme evens, there are also routine situations, which is important for you. But of
which you do not think of on everyday basis. But where you think of when they do not exist
anymore. Think about the relaxation in a steam bad, the relation with your mother, a night kiss.
Phenomenology is about the experience of these moments at these places, not about the factual
aspects.
What we observe is not the object or a fact as it is, but how inasmuch it is given in the intentional
acts. The true essence of objects resides in our deepest intentional relationship with them.
Edmund Hussrl developed phenomenology as an approach to understand subjectivity and
subjective meaning of these events and places. He was not interested in factual knowledge, but
much more in the subjective knowledge. He assumes that we never accounted an event neutrally.
We always have a purpose/ intention which direct our intention to it. We see different things.
Phenomenology is broadly practices in social sciences and also spatial sciences in relation to space
and place, and how these meaning of space and place is subjectively constructed. Not just by means
of individuals subjective intentional acts but also by inter subjective and interaction.
Central in our phenomenological approach in space and place is experience.
Phenomenology:
Phenomena do not independently exist out there (its not based on facts), but are based on
interpretations
3
, Intentions of investigator as well as intentions of investigated subjects, are important if we
want to interpret the world, or if we want to understand the way, people perceive and act in
this world
Through our intention’s phenomena are attributed a meaning (a city is only different from a
village from the perspective of what we itent with this classification or from the perspective of
what we intend to do in a city or in a village)
Just with external overt quantifiable facts, without taking into account the specific subjective
perspective of the subjective we investigate, we can not really explain or understand how and
why people act in the way they do
Research focus shifts from superficial analysis and explanation of spatial regularities to the
understanding of the way people make sense of the world and act accordingly.
Lecture 1 – part 2 – Phenomenology of space and place
The world of classical phenomenological thinkers, as soon as you want to do something with the
concept of space and place, you cannot get around them there are part of the spatial thinking. If we
talk about phenomenology, we have Martin Heidegger. He asked himself: what is actually means to
exist of a person what it means to be, what it means to be in this world. The term, being in the
world, Dasein. It means being at a place, being in the world. One cannot being separate between
being, world and place. It is necessary for us to be somewhere, to be in the world. To be is to be
related to a place. He uses being in the world as like concept object, consciences and world. The split
between subject and object. As we find it a western tradition should be overcome. In a similar way
also Hussrel and Plentano concept of intentionality express an intention that it is not an condition
but that it is always related to ourselves. It is always consciousness of something. We cannot think of
a place to not include our consciousness awareness of that place. We cannot isolate the place of the
rest of the environment. There is always a mood that assails us with an un-reflected emotion.
A mood come neither form the outside or inside but arises from being in the world. Only through a
mood we are able to encounter things and being in the world. Dasein openness in the world and
interpretation and understanding the world in terms of possibilities. Many possible relations of the
world around us. This relationship gives a place a specific meaning. Being in a specific place gives or
relate to a certain object is always a moment in time. So, time plays an important role in the way we
experience a place and an object here. The essence of our relationship to the world depends on how
we actively and temporarily relate to the world. We choose a specific possibility.
Many different possibilities to relate to the world. Having to do something, producing something,
looking after something, making use of something, giving something up of letting it go, considering,
discussing, they all exemplify different things related to the world. Heidegger describes different
ways of being to a concern, to a specific place a form of caring, it is a specific form of spatial practice.
Place and space are not just out there but are lived spaces. Are spaces which we somehow make our
own, make it to our home.
4
